Rain? Where, when and for as long as you want it

Ba(a)s in irrigation techniques

Let it rain! But when you want it to and how much you want it to. The wet dream of us all, right? Especially in Belgium. Fortunately, there is BAS Beregening, the specialist in sprinkling techniques for golf courses, parks and gardens.

BAS Beregening is a small-scale family business - the second generation is now at the helm - but big in the projects they carry out. They install sprinkler systems throughout the Benelux and even in Germany. Best-known customer? That might be the Efteling. There, the garden around the new haunted house, Dance Macabre, was recently equipped with sprinklers and drip hoses. Ghosts and demons also love a nice green garden.

Water saving

You wouldn't immediately think it after the wet year we have had, but we are increasingly experiencing periods of severe drought. Just spraying water at random then is not only wrong, but also a pure waste of a precious commodity. Yet golf courses in particular want to offer their golfers a perfectly green green green green in high season. How do you reconcile the two? “By engaging us,” laughs Peter Van Beers, calculator and work planner at BAS Beregening. “Thanks to our advanced techniques and control systems, we can control sprinkler systems to the second and to the millimetre.” 

Damme Golf & Country Club

A good example is Damme Golf & Country Club. “There, too, the realisation grew that water is a precious commodity,” says Van Beers. “That's why we were asked not only to renew their installation, but also to focus strongly on water saving.” 

“Looking to the future, focusing on sustainability and reducing pesticides, we decided to revamp our outdated sprinkler system,” confirms head greenkeeper Jan Bastiaanse of Damme Golf & Country Club. “Accurate water management is essential.” Especially for a club with an 18-hole Champion Course, a 9-hole President Course and a 9-hole Compact Course. Thorough investigation by BAS Beregening specialists revealed some pain points: the pipes still consisted of PVC tubes, which were already 30 years old. “Current pipes are drawn in HDPE tubes, which are less harmful to the environment. After all, you put them in the ground. Moreover, the PVC glue joints had become brittle over the years, causing more and more leaks and precious water seeping into the ground.” In addition, the sprinkler system was outdated, often using more water than necessary. “The system always rounded up the spraying time, with a minimum of one minute. While sometimes a few seconds would also suffice,” Van Beers knows. This led to unnecessary water consumption.

Single head control

The solution? A new, leak-free, main pipe network and a state-of-the-art control system with single head control. “With this, all spray heads can be controlled separately, and you can specify exactly how long you want to irrigate where. This is much more efficient, because some parts of a golf course are in the shade while others are in the sun. Both have different water requirements.” The Toro Lynx control system can even irrigate on the second. “If the greenkeeper indicates that 3 millimetres of water should fall in a certain area, the system automatically calculates how long to spray - without a minimum time.” Saving water? Absolutely. Also good to know: thanks to the Toro Watchdog weather station, the system monitors weather conditions. In case of sufficient precipitation, any automatic programmes are temporarily switched off. “Furthermore, Damme Golf & Country Club also made the choice to provide a row of spray heads on each side of the fairways. Normally, only one row of sprinklers is installed, in the middle of the fairway,” says Van Beers. “We calculated that by using more sprinklers, we can save water. Now we only spray on the fairways and no longer in the roughs, where golfers don't go anyway. Good for a water saving of 30 per cent.” “We are very satisfied with the cooperation with BAS Beregening”, concludes Jan Bastiaanse. “Their passion and clear communication ensure efficient cooperation.” 

Making existing systems more economical

BAS Beregening's innovative Toro Lynx control system can also be installed on existing sprinkler systems. Is your main water network not yet due for replacement, but would you like to see water costs reduced? Then an upgrade is possible. “For that, we only need to replace the decoders (interface units) in the field and install a new computer system with software,” Van Beers concludes.